Sunday, January 20, 2013

Supporting Gun Control Laws Means Giving Government More Credit Than It Deserves

Supporting gun control laws means giving government more credit than
it deserves. Government is an institution run and staffed by people with
their own interests and personalities. Are they really any smarter,
more competent, or less likely to escalate violence than the average
person?
If anything, institutional interests and incentives combine with the
difficulty of holding government actors accountable to make them more
dangerous. The laws they enforce make them an even bigger threat to
public safety. Government workers with assault weapons break into
people’s homes if they are suspected of having unapproved medicine,
haven’t paid off the banker, or happen to live at the wrong address. If
those government workers feel threatened during their adrenaline rush
they are liable to shoot the terrified residents and their pets — and
get away with it. I wouldn’t feel any safer knowing that these were the
only people who could legally buy 30-round magazines.
Dispersing the tools of personal defense among peaceable individuals
and consensual communities makes life safer by reducing the power of
(and indeed the perceived need for) militarized official protectors.
Of course, not everyone is average, and gun violence committed by
private citizens is frightful. But the prevalence of violence often
signals a power imbalance, usually government enforced.
Mass shootings often, but not always, take place in institutions of
rigid hierarchy where an individual made powerless by the system sees
aggressive violence as a means of empowerment through conquest. Such
motivations can be limited through widespread personal empowerment based
on respect for autonomy and the cultivation of responsibility rather
than obedience.
True, not every mass shooting fits this pattern, and unfortunately it
is doubtful that any society can entirely prevent murder. But it is
possible to reduce the number of victims. The best way to do that is by
reducing institutionalized dislocation and by encouraging people within
the community to take responsibility for defense rather than calling on —
and waiting for help from — government officials. Having powerful
weapons with big magazines can help them accomplish this. After all,
police departments point to active shooter scenarios to explain why they
need the types of guns targeted by assault weapon bans.
Most deadly violence committed by private citizens occurs in areas
suffering from institutionalized discrimination. Unofficial economic
segregation leads to some areas getting the worst schools, the most
hostile police forces, the lowest levels of investment, and the largest
burden of environmental hazards. These are usually places where minority
racial groups, targeted by the bigotry of the powerful, live. The Black
Panthers recognized this; their gun-toting swagger was part of their
community improvement and empowerment program.
Today government policy — carried out by the people gun control
advocates trust with assault weapons — makes neighborhoods into drug war
battlegrounds while local politics tries to isolate the problem into
particular school districts. Youth are harassed and an obscene
percentage of adults are imprisoned, stifling the potential for open and
peaceful community development.
The original Black Panthers were not perfect, but remain instructive.
They certainly got attention. Rebels at the bottom of every power
imbalance can probably learn valuable lessons from their experience.
While we make society more compassionate — which cannot be done
without cultivating respect for liberty and autonomy — we should respect
the gun rights of all responsible individuals. It is amazing that an
18-year-old can vote and serve in the military, but cannot legally buy a
handgun for personal defense, especially since it was once common for
rural students to bring guns to school and leave them in the principal’s
office so they could go hunting before or after school. If guns are
viewed as familiar but dangerous instead of as mysterious sources of
forbidden power, they will probably be handled more responsibly.
The alternative to moving toward freedom is making society more
prison-like, with heavily armed paramilitaries standing guard while
those considered “off” are subject to “mental health” inquisitions. The
path to greater responsibility, accountability, and compassion is found
in the pursuit of liberty.

Center for a Stateless Society (C4SS.org)
News Analyst Darian Worden is a left-libertarian writer and historian.
He has hosted an internet radio show, written essays and fiction, and
is the lead writer for Head First, a history adventure series. His website is DarianWorden.com.

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